“…It has been previously shown in septic patients with DIC and in patients with overt DIC that lowered antithrombin and protein C, respectively, associate with increased mortality. To our knowledge, however, in the much larger group of acutely ill patients initially suspected of DIC that never actually develop DIC, it has not been previously shown that lowered antithrombin and especially lowered protein C allows identification of many more patients who are at a high risk of death and would not be identified using the overt DIC criteria alone.…”